I have been asked to prepare a brief introduction for Ole Nattestad’s
description of his journey from Norway to America in 1837. In
complying with this request I shall make free use of facts and
statements published by me in various other works and particularly in
my _First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration_ (1906).
The Norsemen have an honorable place in the annals of America. We may,
indeed, say that the civilized history of this country begins with the
Norsemen. If you look at a map you will at once find that Greenland
and even a part of Iceland belong to the western hemisphere, and
Iceland became the hinge upon which the door swings that opens America
to Europe. It was the occupation of Iceland by the Norsemen in the
year 874 and the frequent voyages between this island and Norway that
led to the discovery and settlement first of Greenland and then of
America, and it is due to the culture and fine historical taste of the
Icelanders that carefully prepared records of these Norse voyages were
kept, first to teach pelagic navigation to Columbus and afterwards to
solve for us the mysteries concerning the first discovery of this
continent.
The old republican Vikings well understood the importance of studying
the art of ship-building and of navigation. They knew how to measure
time by the stars and how to calculate the course of the sun and moon.
They were themselves pioneers in venturing out upon the high seas and
taught the rest of the world to navigate the ocean. Every scrap of
written history sustains me when I say that the other peoples of the
world were limited in their nautical knowledge to coast navigation.
The Norse Vikings who crossed the stormy North Sea, finding their way
to Great Britain, to the Orkneys, the Faröes, and to Iceland, all
those heroes who found their way to Greenland and Vinland, taught the
world pelagic navigation. They demonstrated the possibility of
venturing out of sight of land, and in this sense, if in no other, we
may with perfect propriety assert that the Norsemen taught Columbus
how to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
That the Norsemen held an honorable place in the annals of America is
shown by a fact of the greatest importance in the world’s history,
namely, that the Norsemen anticipated by five centuries Christopher
Columbus and Amerigo Vespucius and the new world was discovered by
Leif Erikson in the year 1000. About the year 860 the Norsemen
discovered Iceland and soon afterwards (in 874) they established upon
this island a republic which flourished for 400 years. Greenland was
seen for the first time in 876 by Gunnbjorn Ulfson from Norway. About
a century later, in the year 984, Erik the Red resolved to go in
search of the lands in the west which Gunnbjorn as well as others
later had seen. He sailed from Iceland, and found a land as he had
expected, and remained there exploring the country for two years. At
the end of this period he returned to Iceland, giving the
newly-discovered country the name of Greenland in order, as he said,
to attract settlers who would be favorably impressed with so pleasing
a name. Thus, as Greenland belongs geographically wholly to America,
it will be seen that Erik the Red was the first white man to boom
American real estate. And he was successful. Many Norsemen emigrated,
particularly from Iceland, and a flourishing colony with Gardar as its
capital and Erik the Red as its first governor was established and
became the first settlement of Europeans in the new world. In the year
1261 it became subject to the crown of Norway. We have a list of
seventeen bishops who served in Greenland. Erik the Red and his
followers were not Christian when they settled in Greenland, but
worshippers of Odin and Thor, though they relied chiefly on their own
might and strength. Christianity was introduced among them about the
year 1000, though Erik the Red continued to adhere to the religion of
his fathers to his dying day.
The first white man whose eyes beheld any part of the American
continent was the Norseman, Bjarne Herjulfson, who saw this land in
the year 986. The first white man who, to our knowledge, planted his
feet on the soil of the American continent was Leif Erikson, the son
of Erik the Red, in the year 1000; and Leif’s brother Thorvald, who
died in 1002, was the first white man and the first Christian who was
buried beneath American sod. Thorfin Karlsefne, who landed in 1007,
was the first white man to found a settlement within the limits of the
present United States, and his wife, Gudrid, was the first white woman
who came to Vinland. In the year 1008 she gave birth to a son in
Vinland. The boy, who received in baptism the name Snorre, was the
first person of European descent born in the new world. In 1112 Erik
Upsi settled as bishop in Greenland and in 1121 this same bishop went
on a missionary journey from Greenland to Vinland, the first visit of
a Christian minister to the American continent. The last of these
interesting voyages before the rediscovery of America by Columbus was
in the year 1347 when a Greenland ship with a crew of eighteen men
came from Nova Scotia (Markland) to Straumfjord in Iceland. Thus it
appears that the Vinland voyages extended over a period of about 350
years and to within 145 years of the rediscovery of America by
Columbus in 1492. From the accounts of these voyages and settlements
we get our first knowledge and descriptions of the aborigines of
America.
While Leif Erikson was the first white man to plant his feet on the
eastern shores of the American continent, it was left to another
plucky Scandinavian to become the discoverer of the narrow body of
water which separates America from Asia. Vitus Bering was a Dane born
in Jutland, in Denmark, in 1680. He entered the service of Russia and
in 1725 was made commander-in-chief of one of the greatest
geographical expeditions ever undertaken. He explored the Sea of
Kamchatka and during this voyage in 1728 he discovered Bering Strait
and ascertained that Asia was not joined to America, thus becoming the
discoverer of the extreme western boundary line of the continent.
The first visit of Scandinavians to America proper in post-Columbian
times occurred in the year 1619, just a year before the landing of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth. In the spring of that year King Christian IV
fitted out two ships, the _Eenhjorningen_ and the _Lamprenen_, for the
purpose of finding a northwest passage to Asia. The commander of this
expedition was the Norwegian, Jens Munk, born at Barby in southern
Norway in 1579. Sailing from Copenhagen with his two ships and
sixty-six men May 9, 1619, he explored Hudson Bay and took possession
of the surrounding country in the name of his sovereign and gave it
the name of Nova Dania. All the members of this expedition perished
except Jens Munk and two of his crew, who returned to Norway September
25, 1620, the undertaking having proved a complete failure. The ship
chaplain on this expedition was a Danish Lutheran minister, Rasmus
Jensen Aarhus, the first minister to preach Lutheranism in the new
world. He died February 20, 1620, on the southwestern shore of Hudson
Bay at the mouth of the Churchill River. His last sermon was a funeral
sermon preached from his own death bed.
Norwegians and Danes came to New Amsterdam (New York) at a very early
period. Traces of Scandinavians in New York can be found as early as
1617. In 1704 these Norwegians and Danes built a stone church on the
corner of Broadway and Rector streets, where regular services were
held in the Danish language until the property was sold to Trinity
Church, the present churchyard occupying the site of the early
building. The first directory published in New York shows many names
of unquestionable Norwegian or Danish origin.
It is well known that the Swedes founded a settlement on the Delaware
in 1638, and the Swedish language was used in a Philadelphia church as
late as 1823. John Morton, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, and an active member of the Continental Congress, was a
descendant of the Swedes of Delaware. Robert Anderson, the gallant
defender of Fort Sumter, against which the first gun of the Civil War
was fired, was also a scion of the Swedes on the Delaware, and so it
appears that love of freedom and patriotism and statecraft and valor
came to America not only in the _Mayflower_ but also in the
_Kalmarnyckel_ and _Vogelgrip_, which brought the first Swedish
settlers to America in 1638.
How many Norwegians landed in America between the years 1492 and 1821
it is impossible to determine. There are no government statistics to
guide us and we know there was no regular or systematic emigration
from any of the Scandinavian countries. It is certain that no
Norwegians came in collective bodies to form settlements, and we can
trace them only through their descendants who have kept family records
or through public documents or published works where they happen to be
mentioned. In this way some of the Scandinavians who settled in New
Amsterdam have been found.
In a similar manner we find the names of Norwegians and Swedes who
took part in the war of the Revolution. There is the case of Thomas
Johnson. In Volume 28 (1874) of the _New England Historical and
Genealogical Register_ we find a full account of Thomas Johnson who
served under Paul Jones, first in the crew of the _Ranger_ and
afterwards in the crew of the _Bonhomme Richard_. Johnson was the son
of a pilot at Mandal, a seaport on the southwest coast of Norway,
where he was born in 1758. In the absence of his father, he towed the
first American vessel, the _Ranger_, commanded by Paul Jones, into the
harbor of Mandal. After their arrival Jones sent for the young pilot
and, presenting him with a piece of gold, expressed his pleasure at
his expert seamanship, which he had minutely watched during the towing
of the ship into the harbor. Jones had made the port of Mandal for the
purpose of recruiting the crew of the _Ranger_; and, satisfactory
arrangements having been made with his father, Johnson was received on
board as a seaman. Thomas Johnson died at the age of ninety-three at
the United States Naval Asylum in Philadelphia on July 12, 1851; he
had been there for many years a pensioner, and was known by the
soubriquet “Paul Jones.” The account of Thomas Johnson led me to
investigate further into the history of John Paul Jones, and in his
biography, written by John Henry Sherburne, register of the navy of
the United States, published at Washington in 1825, I found a roll of
officers, seamen, marines, and volunteers who served on board the
_Bonhomme Richard_ in her cruise made in 1779. In this roll the native
country of every man is given and in it I found two seamen born in
Norway and seven born in Sweden.
Here I may also mention the brilliant Swede, Colonel Axel Fersen, who,
in 1779, went to France where he was appointed colonel of the Royal
Regiment of Swedes. He served with distinction at the head of his
regiment in the later campaigns of the American War, distinguishing
himself on various occasions, particularly in 1781, during the siege
of Yorktown, where he was aide-de-camp to General Rochambeau. He also
took part in the negotiations between General Washington and General
Rochambeau. He afterwards became Marshal of the kingdom of Sweden.
It is fair to presume that a considerable number of enterprising
Scandinavians found their way to their old Vinland during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and particularly during the
first quarter of the nineteenth century.
In the early days of the American republic diplomatic and consular
relations were established with the Scandinavian countries, and there
was more or less commerce between Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and the
United States. This financial and commercial intercourse would
naturally induce some Scandinavians to visit the United States and
others to settle within our gates. The many Scandinavian names found
in the old directories of New York, Philadelphia, and other eastern
cities are largely to be accounted for in this manner.
From the year 1820 the United States government supplies us with
immigration statistics, but in these Sweden and Norway are grouped
together down to the year 1868, and hence it is impossible to
determine until then how many immigrants came from each country. From
the year 1836 we are helped out by Norway, where the government then
began to collect and prepare statistics of emigration.
The father of Norwegian emigration to the United States in the
nineteenth century was Kleng Peerson from near Stavanger, Norway. In
the year 1821 he with a comrade, Knud Olson Eide, was sent from Norway
to New York by the Society of Quakers in and near Stavanger for the
purpose of making an investigation of conditions and opportunities in
the United States. After a sojourn of three years in America, all that
time being spent in and around New York City, they returned to Norway.
Here their reports of social, political, and religious conditions in
America and their description of opportunities in the new world
awakened great interest, inducing a resolution on the part of many to
emigrate. Lars Larsen, the man at whose house the first Quaker meeting
had been held in Stavanger in 1816, at once undertook to organize a
party of emigrants. Being successful in finding the number of people
who were ready and willing to join him, the heads of families
furnished their scanty possessions in money and purchased a sloop
which had been built in the Hardanger Fjord between Stavanger and
Bergen and which they loaded with a cargo of iron. For this sloop and
cargo they paid the sum of $1,800.
This little Norwegian _Mayflower_ of the nineteenth century received
the name _Restaurationen_ (the “Restoration”) and on the day of
American Independence, July 4, 1825, the brave little company of
emigrants sailed out of the harbor of the ancient and grotesque city
of Stavanger. The company consisted of fifty-two persons, including
the two officers, chiefly from Stavanger City and Tysver Parish, north
of Stavanger. They were fifty-two when they left Stavanger, but when
they reached New York on the second Sunday of October (October 9) they
numbered fifty-three, the wife of the leader, Larsen, having given
birth to a beautiful girl baby on the second of September.
From 1825 to 1836 there was but little emigration from Norway. Before
1836 there were no vessels carrying emigrants from Norway to America.
Those who did emigrate came either by way of Gothenborg, Sweden, or
Havre, in which cities passengers to America could be accommodated.
Gothenborg vessels carried Swedish iron to America but emigrants
frequently had to wait for weeks before they found a ship bound for
New York. From Hamburg regular packet ships carried German emigrants,
but these were so numerous that there was frequently a delay of from
two to three weeks before they could be accommodated. In Havre the
emigrant packets were also regular but there were not so many
emigrants and the Norwegians could count on going on the first ship
leaving port. This made Havre the most popular point of departure from
Europe for the Norwegians.
Of course, a great number of letters were written by the Norwegians in
America to relatives and friends in Norway and these were read by
hundreds who were anxious to better their fortunes. Finally, one of
the sloop passengers, Knud Anderson Slogvig, returned to Norway in
1835 and the news that he had arrived at his old home in the Skjold
district spread far and wide and created the greatest excitement. He
was the hero of the day. People traveled hundreds of miles to see and
talk with him. Letters from emigrants had been read with the deepest
interest but here was a man who had spent ten years in the new world!
Through Knud Slogvig the American fever spread beyond the limits of
Stavanger Amt and Christiansand Stift. This led to the great exodus of
1836, when the two Koehler brigs, _Norden_ and _Den Norske Klippe_,
were fitted out for emigrants in Stavanger and left that summer loaded
with about two hundred passengers for New York. On board the _Norden_
my father and mother and my two oldest brothers were passengers. The
American fever continued, calling for two ships in 1837, the _Aegir_
from Bergen and the _Enighedon_ from Egershund. Then there was a
partial lull, until after 1840, when the American fever set in for
good. It has continued to rage ever since, culminating in the year
1882, when over 29,000 Norwegians landed in the United States.
Those who came in the sloop _Restaurationen_ settled in Kendall,
Orleans County, New York, on the shores of Lake Ontario. In 1833 we
find Kleng Peerson in company with a Quaker, Ingebret Larsen Narvig,
who had come from Norway to Boston in 1831 and footed it from there to
Kendall, on their way to the far west. Larsen parted company with
Kleng and went to work for a farmer in Michigan. Kleng continued his
journey westward until he reached La Salle County, Illinois, and there
selected the location of the second Norwegian settlement in this
country. Kendall and Fox River settlement in Illinois was his undying
glory. Most of the settlers in Orleans County, New York, on the advice
of Kleng, moved to the Fox River settlement. In 1836 these were joined
by the 200 immigrants who came in the _Norden_ and the _Den Norske
Klippe_, and in 1837 by many of those who came in the _Aegir_ and the
_Enighedon_.
One of the Norwegians who came in the _Aegir_ was Ole Rynning, a name
well known in the annals of Norwegian immigration. On reaching Chicago
he was persuaded by a couple of Americans to go with some of his
friends to inspect lands some eighty miles south of Chicago along
Beaver Creek with the view of founding a Norwegian settlement there.
Ole Rynning chose as his companions on this journey of inspection
Niels Veste from Etne in Norway, Ingebrigt Brudvig, and Ole Nattestad
from Numedal, Norway, the latter the author of the book herewith
published. Ole Nattestad and his brother, Ansten, had just arrived by
way of Gothenborg, Sweden, and Fall River, Massachusetts, and joining
a group of other immigrants in Detroit, Michigan, had accompanied them
to Chicago. The rest of the company remained in Chicago to await the
result. Ole Nattestad stated that he did not like the land, it being
sandy and swampy, but as the others were pleased with it, it was
agreed that Nattestad and Veste should remain and put up a log house
for the reception of the immigrants while Rynning and Brudvig returned
to Chicago to fetch their friends.
Some of those who were left in Chicago in the meantime had gone to the
Fox River settlement but the most of them went with Rynning and
Brudvig to Beaver Creek. There were no settlers in the immediate
vicinity and it was difficult to procure the common necessities of
life, although the most of these people were well supplied with money.
Many of the new settlers grumbled and were inclined to find fault with
Ole Rynning and the others who were responsible for the selection of
this settlement. All chose land for farms, and before winter set in a
sufficient number of log houses had been built. The number of settlers
here was about fifty. These people were well and happy in America
during the first winter, but the next spring the whole settlement was
flooded and the swamp was turned into a veritable lake. In the summer
the settlers were attacked by malarial fever. In a short time no less
than fourteen or fifteen deaths occurred and among those who here
found his last resting place was Ole Rynning. The survivors fled,
leaving farms and houses, as there was nobody to buy land where a
malarial atmosphere threatened the inhabitants with almost certain
destruction. The most of those who fled found their way to the Fox
River settlement, reaching there late in the summer of 1838. Only a
few remained two or three years, defying the dangers to health and
life, the last one to leave the colony being Mons Aadland, a brother
of the well-known journalist and author, Knud Langland. He finally
exchanged his farm for a small number of cows at auction and went to
Racine County, Wisconsin, where he lived to a ripe old age.
Ole Rynning became particularly conspicuous and influential on account
of a book which he published in Christiania, Norway, in 1838, the
title of which is “Sandfaerdig Beretning on Amerika til Oplysning og
Nytte for Bonde og Menigmand forfattet af en norsk, som kom derover i
Juni Maaned 1837,” that is, “A Truthful Account of America for the
Instruction and Help of the Peasant and Commoner Written by a
Norwegian Who Came there in the Month of June, 1837.” The author’s
name is given at the end of the preface where we read: “Illinois,
February 13, 1838, Ole Rynning.”
This little book of only thirty-nine pages is now exceedingly scarce.
I obtained a copy of it from Rev. B. J. Muus of Goodhue County,
Minnesota. In the nineties I reprinted it in _Amerika_ and struck off
about two hundred copies which I had bound and placed in various
libraries. A copy of it may be found in the library of the Wisconsin
State Historical Society.
We began with Erik the Red and Leif Erikson and have now come to the
brothers, Ole and Ansten Nattestad. Ole K. Nattestad was born December
24, 1807; died May 28, 1886. His wife died September 15, 1888. Ansten
K. Nattestad was born August 20, 1813; died April 8, 1889.
The fourth Norwegian settlement in America and the first in Wisconsin
was founded by Ole Knudsen Nattestad (changed in America to Natesta)
who was accordingly the first Norwegian to set foot on Wisconsin soil.
He came to Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin, July 1, 1838, and this was
the beginning of the so-called Jefferson Prairie settlement, which
occupies the southeast corner of Rock County and extends into Boone
County, Illinois. They came from Vegli, Rolloug Parish in Numedal,
Norway, by way of Gothenborg and Fall River, Massachusetts.
When the Beaver Creek settlement was abandoned, Ansten Nattestad, in
the spring of 1838, returned to Norway, taking with him the Ole
Rynning manuscript and also the manuscript of a journal kept by his
brother, Ole Nattestad. Ansten stated that this manuscript of his
brother was published in Drammen, Norway, that same year but in spite
of the most diligent search I have never been able to secure a copy of
that edition. In Norway copies of all publications are placed in the
University Library. I had this library searched for a copy of
Nattestad’s book but none could be found. In an interview published in
_Billed Magazin_ in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1869, Ansten Nattestad made
the following statement:
In the spring of 1838 I went from Beaver Creek, Illinois, by
way of New Orleans to Liverpool in England and thence to
Norway to visit friends and acquaintances in my native land.
I brought with me letters from nearly all the earlier
Norwegian emigrants whom I had met and in this way
information was scattered far and wide in Norway. My
brother’s journal was published in Drammen and Ole Rynning’s
work on matters of the new world appeared at the same time
in Christiania. Of Rynning’s book I brought the manuscript
with me from America. The Rev. Mr. Kragh in Eidsvold read
the proofs and left out the chapter about the Norwegian
clergymen who therein were accused of intolerance in
religious matters and inactivity in questions concerning the
betterment of the people in temporal affairs and in
questions concerning the advancement of education.
In 1869 Ole Nattestad gave the following account of himself in the
_Billed Magazin_ referred to above:
As the next oldest of three brothers, I did not have the
right of primogeniture to my father’s farm which, according
to law, and custom, would go to the oldest son. My ambition
was to become a farmer, and I hoped some day to be able to
buy a farm in my own neighborhood. Then my brother entered
the military school in Christiania and I was to manage the
farm during his absence. I entered upon my task cheerfully,
worked with all my might and kept a careful account of
income and disbursements. To my great surprise, I soon found
that in spite of all my toil and prudence, I did not make
much headway. When the year was ended, I had little or
nothing left as a reward for my labor and it was clear to me
that it would not do to buy an expensive farm and run in
debt for it. Farming did not pay in the locality where I was
born. I then tried the occupation of an itinerant merchant.
I could earn a living in this way, but the laws were against
me and I did not like to carry on a business of such a
nature that it was necessary to keep my affairs secret from
the _lensmand_ [undersheriff]. Then I worked awhile as a
blacksmith. This furnished me enough to do, but it was
difficult to collect the money I earned. The law did not
permit me to work at my trade in the city. Then [in 1836] my
younger brother, Ansten, and I went across the mountains to
the western part of Norway to buy sheep which we intended to
sell again. While we were stopping in the vicinity of
Stavanger, we heard much talk about a country which was
called America. This was the first time we heard this word.
We saw letters written by Norwegians who were living in
America and we were told that Knud Slogvig, who, many years
before that had emigrated in a sloop [_Restaurationen_] from
Stavanger, had lately visited his native land and had given
so favorable a report about America that about 150 [should
be 200] emigrants from Stavanger Amt and from Hardanger had
gone back with him and had sailed that very summer [1836] in
two brigs from Stavanger across the ocean. They had gone in
spite of all sorts of threats and warnings about slavery,
death, and disease. This was the first large exodus after
the emigration of the sloop party in 1825. All that we here
saw was so new and came to us so unexpectedly that we were
not at once able to arrange all the reports into a
systematic whole and thus get a correct idea of conditions
in the new world. But when I spent the following Christmas
with Even Nubbru who was a member of the Storthing from
Sigdal we discussed the hard times in my native valley and I
suggested that I might have better luck in some other part
of the country. In replying Even Nubbru remarked that
wherever I went in the world, I would nowhere find a people
who had as good laws as the Americans. He had accidentally
just had the opportunity of reading something about America
in a German newspaper and he described the free institutions
of America. This information had a magic effect on me as I
looked upon it as an injustice that the laws of Norway
should forbid me to trade and not allow me to get my living
by honest work as a mechanic wherever I desired to locate. I
had confidence in the judgment of the member of the
Storthing and I compared his remarks with what I had heard
about America in the vicinity of Stavanger. Gradually I got
to thinking of emigration and while considering the matter
on my way home, the idea matured into a resolution. My
brother Ansten did not have to be asked a second time. He
was willing at once; he approved of my plans and in April,
1837, we were ready for our journey. When we left home, we
had together about eight hundred dollars, Norwegian money,
but this sum gradually grew less on account of our expenses
on the way and besides we lost considerable in changing our
money into American coin. Ansten also paid the passage for
Halsten Halvorsen Braekke-Eiet who now [1869] resides in
Dodgeville [Wisconsin], and is looked upon as an excellent
blacksmith.
Our equipment consisted of the clothes we wore, a pair of
skis, and a knapsack. People looked at us with wonder and
intimated that we must have lost our senses. They suggested
that we had better hang ourselves in the first tree in order
to avoid a worse fate. We went on skis across the mountains
from Rolloug to Tin and thence in a direct line over hills
and through forests to Stavanger, where we expected to get
passage across the sea. We did not worry about the roads for
all three of us were experts on skis and our baggage caused
us no inconvenience. In Stavanger we told everybody that we
were going to America and wanted to secure passage across
the sea. This open-heartedness came near spoiling our plans.
The report of three mountaineers soon spread over the whole
city and high government officials came to see our
passports. We were now told that the bailiff’s passport only
permitted us to go to Stavanger while the certificate from
the pastor correctly stated that we intended to leave the
country and emigrate to America. We were not versed in such
things and thought our papers were in order, especially as
the documents we carried gave testimony that we were men of
good habits and Christian conduct. No suspicious remarks
were made but in the evening there came a man who was angry
on account of the wrong the officials were going to do us
and related that it had been resolved that we were to be
arrested the following day and then to be sent from
_lensmand_ to _lensmand_ to our native valley as we intended
to leave the country without permission being given in the
passport from the bailiff. The government here, he said, was
in a bitter rage against all emigrants and we could not
count on any mercy. On this man’s advice we departed
secretly from Stavanger under cover of night in order to
avoid the danger that threatened us and without attracting
any attention we got to Tananger. Here we met a skipper who,
with his yacht loaded with herring, was ready to sail to
Gothenborg. He promised to take us on board, but when we
told him what had happened to us in Stavanger, he became
doubtful. He praised our honesty, and on further assurance
that we would assume all responsibility if we got in
trouble, he decided to accept us as passengers. We acted
discreetly while we were ashore and we felt greatly relieved
when we finally got to sea. In Gothenborg we had no mishaps,
and we secured passage in a vessel loaded with Swedish iron
and bound for Fall River, Massachusetts. The journey lasted
thirty-two days and we paid fifty dollars each for
transportation and board. From Fall River we went to New
York where we met a few Norwegians who helped us to get to
Rochester. Here we talked with some of our countrymen who,
twelve years ago, had come in the sloop from Stavanger that
brought the first Norwegian immigrants to America. Rochester
and vicinity did not meet our expectations in regard to the
new world. Many of the first immigrants had left the first
settlement in Kendall and had gone west to find new lands,
particularly to La Salle County, Illinois, near Ottawa on
the Fox River. The Fox River colony received a very
considerable increment by the great exodus from Stavanger in
1836, that is, the year before I came to America. The most
of these immigrants had located in that settlement. This we
learned in Rochester, and there we heard for the first time
the name Chicago. We determined to go west and see what we
could find. When we had reached Detroit, I was walking in
the streets to look at the town. There I accidentally met a
man by whose clothes I could see that he was from the
western coast of Norway. I greeted the man and he returned
my greeting, and the meeting was like that of two brothers
who had not seen each other for years. He informed me that
he had left Bergen some months before, together with about
seventy [should be eighty-four] passengers and that the
whole company of which the University secretary, Ole
Rynning, was the leader, had been waiting a week for
transportation to Chicago. We were glad to meet our
countrymen and we joined the party, in which there was at
least one [Rynning] who could speak English. On landing in
Chicago we met Bjorn Anderson Kvelve [the father of the
present editor] from the Stavanger company. He had come to
America the year before [1836] and had travelled through
various parts of Illinois but all that he had heard and seen
had only served to make him dissatisfied with this side of
the ocean. Broken down in soul and body, he stood before us
as a victim of misery and produced a scene so terrible that
it never will be blotted from my memory. “God bless and
comfort you!” said he. “There is neither work nor land nor
food to be had and by all means do not go to Fox River;
there you will all die from malarial fever.” These words had
a terrible effect on our little flock, many of whom had
already lost all courage. Like demons from the lower world,
all the evil warnings about the terrors that awaited the
emigrants to America were now called to mind and even the
bravest were as by magic stricken by a panic which bordered
on insanity. The women wrung their hands in despair and
uttered terrible shrieks of woe. Some of the men stood
immovable like statues with all the marks of frightful
despair on their faces, while others made threats against
those whom they regarded as the promoters of emigration and
the leaders of the party. But in this critical situation Ole
Rynning’s greatness appeared. He stood in the midst of the
people who were ready for mutiny; he comforted those in
despair and gave advice to those who doubted and hesitated
and reproved those who were obstinate. He was not in doubt
for a moment and his equanimity, courage, and noble
self-sacrifice for the weal of others had acquired him
influence in the minds of all. The storm abated and the
dissatisfaction gave place to a unanimous confidence. A
couple of Americans with whom Rynning talked advised him to
take the immigrants to Beaver Creek, directly south of
Chicago in Iroquois County.
It seems to me that the story told about my father must, to say the
least, be overdrawn. The facts as I have them from my mother, from
Mons Aadland, and even from Ole Nattestad himself, do not warrant the
painting of so weird a picture. All the prose there is in the romance
is that my father met these people in Chicago and was unwilling to
recommend the Fox River settlement with which he was not pleased, and
as he had never seen Iroquois County, he had no share in recommending
the immigrants to go to Beaver Creek. His dissatisfaction with the Fox
River settlement is further confirmed by the fact that in 1840 he
found a new home in Albion, Dane County, Wisconsin. In support of my
view, I may here quote the words of Prof. Svein Nilsson in _Billed
Magazin_ (1869) where, in alluding to the Beaver Creek settlement he
states:
Ole Rynning’s company met Bjorn Anderson Kvelve in Chicago.
The unfavorable description he gave of the land both west
and north frightened the immigrants from locating in any of
the existing Norwegian colonies and this resulted in the
founding of the Beaver Creek Settlement whose sad story is
well known to the Scandinavian population in the northwest.
In this connection bitter reproaches have been directed
against Bjorn Anderson Kvelve as being in a great measure to
blame for the fatalities of Beaver Creek. But it is usually
the case that people like to seek in others the cause of
their misfortune. This is true of the individual as well as
of corporations and societies and perhaps a little more so
in the case of the immigrants visited by adversity. At all
events, it is our opinion that we do a justice to the man
when we say that the criticism of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve has
been too severe, if not utterly unfounded.
Ole Nattestad continues:
In the spring of 1838 my brother, Ansten, went to Norway and
I worked by the day in the northern part of Illinois.
The first of July, 1838, I came to my present home in about
the middle of the town of Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin,
where I bought land and I am consequently the first
Norwegian to settle in this state. So far as known, no other
Norwegian had planted his feet on Wisconsin soil before me.
For a whole year I saw no countryman but lived alone without
friend, family, or companion. Eight Americans had settled in
the town before me but they lived about as isolated as I
did. I found the soil very fertile and the monotony of the
prairie was relieved by small bunches of trees. Deer and
other game were abundant. The horrid howl of the prairie
wolf disturbed my sleep until habit armed my ears against
annoyances of this sort. The following summer [1839] I built
a little log hut and in this residence I received in
September a number of people from my own parish in Norway.
They had come as immigrants with my brother, Ansten. The
most of these settled on Jefferson Prairie and in this way
the settlement got a large population in a comparatively
short time.
In 1840 Ole Nattestad married Lena Hiser who died September 15, 1888.
She left seven children, all well educated and in good circumstances.
Henry, the youngest son, now occupies the old homestead.
We now pass to Ansten Nattestad, the brother of Ole, and will let him
tell the story as published in the _Billed Magazin_:
In the spring of 1838 I went by way of New Orleans to
Liverpool and thence to Norway to visit friends and
acquaintances in my native land…. [What he tells about
Rynning’s and his brother Ole’s manuscripts has already been
stated.] I spent the winter in Numedal. The report of my
return spread like wildfire through the land and an
incredible number of people came to see me and to get news
from America. Many came as far as twenty Norwegian [140
English] miles to have a talk with me. It was impossible to
answer all the letters I received asking questions about the
condition of things on the other side of the ocean. In the
spring of 1839 about 100 persons from Numedal stood ready to
go with me across the sea. Among these were many farmers and
heads of families, all, excepting the children, able-bodied
persons in their best years. Besides these there were a
number from Thelemarken and from Numedal who were unable to
join me as our ship was full. We went from Drammen direct to
New York. It was the first time the inhabitants of Drammen
saw an emigrant ship. [The name of the ship was _Emelia_ and
the Captain’s name was Ankerson]. Each person paid $33.50
for his passage. We were nine weeks on the sea; the passage
was a successful one and there was no death on board. From
New York we took the common route up the country. In
Milwaukee we met those from Tin and Thelemarken and the
others who were unable to come in our ship across the sea.
[They had come by way of Gothenborg, Sweden, to Boston.]
They came on board to us and wanted us to go with them to
Muskego, Wisconsin. Men had been out there to inspect the
country and they reported that the grass was so high that it
reached up to their shoulders and told of many other
glorious things. The Americans, too, used every argument to
persuade us to stop in Milwaukee. I objected and we
continued our journey. In Chicago I learned that my brother,
Ole, had settled in Wisconsin during my absence in Norway.
Some of the party went to the Fox River settlement where
they had acquaintances, while some unmarried persons found
employment in Chicago and vicinity. The rest of them, that
is to say, the majority, accompanied me to Jefferson
Prairie. Among these were a few who settled in the town of
Rock Run, Stevenson County, in the northern part of Illinois
about fifty miles southwest from Jefferson Prairie, and
there they formed the nucelus of the Norwegian settlement.
Others of my company went to Rock Prairie, a few miles west
of Jefferson Prairie. I and the rest came at once to
Jefferson Prairie where we bought land and began to
cultivate it.
In 1840 a few came here from Numedal and from that time the
number of settlers steadily increased, chiefly by new
arrivals from Norway. The most of those from Numedal settled
in the northern part of the colony, for we who came after my
brother, who was here before any of us, bought land in the
place where he had built his cabin and those from the same
part of Norway who came later as immigrants and who sought
us out in the far west settled as our neighbors. I and the
first Numedalians chose this tract as our home and our
choice was made immediately after our arrival. The same
autumn, 1839, a company from Voss in Norway came to the
settlement. These Vossings went farther south and as “birds
of a feather flock together” so their friends from Voss
gradually settled with them. Hence the Jefferson Prairie
settlement, as to population, may be divided into two
districts, of which the northern consists chiefly of
Numedalians while the Vossings predominate in the southern
part.
In searching for the Nattestad book I learned that Ole Nattestad had
preserved a manuscript copy of it and that sometime in the eighties he
had handed this to Prof. Peter Hendrickson, then editor-in-chief of
_Skandinaven_ in Chicago, with the view of having the manuscript
revised and reprinted; but before Professor Hendrickson found time to
do this work, his home in Evanston, Illinois, was burned to the ground
and in this fire the Nattestad manuscript was lost. Not long since,
however, it was shown that the Nattestad book was not a myth. Mr. H.
L. Skavlem of Janesville, Wisconsin, is a most patient and thorough
student of Norwegian pioneer life in America, and especially of
everything pertaining to the people who have emigrated from Numedal.
In 1915 he published an account of the “Skavlem and Odegaarden
Families in this Country” which is a masterpiece of genealogical
records and pioneer history. Mr. Skavlem, beside being an authority on
Indian relics and on Wisconsin bird life, has done much to preserve
the history of the Norwegians in America. It was he who secured a
printed copy of the Nattestad book for preservation in the library of
the State Historical Society, so far as known the only copy in
existence.
[Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF OLE NATTESTAD’S “JOURNEY TO NORTH
AMERICA”
Photographed from the copy in the Wisconsin Historical Library]
Of this copy, which is now being printed in an English translation,
Mr. Skavlem gives the following account:
In the summer of the year 1900 James and Henry Natesta, the
sons of Ole K. Nattestad, the author of the pamphlet, took a
short trip to Norway to visit the home of their forefathers,
located in Vegli, Numedal. They made diligent inquiries for
a pamphlet said to have been published from a manuscript
sent to Norway in 1838 by their father. An old gentleman
living close by the old homestead told them he had a copy,
which they secured and brought back with them to this
country. This copy has been in the possession of the Natesta
brothers until last January (1916) when it was turned over
to me and I handed it over to the State Historical Society.
In regard to the book, or pamphlet, it is to be stated that while Ole
Nattestad had learned to write, he was entirely ignorant of Norwegian
grammar. Both his orthography and his syntax are very faulty. There
are many subordinate clauses with the principal clause left out. The
surprising thing is that the printers in Drammen did not make the
necessary corrections. I was requested to follow the original as
closely as possible, so as to convey to the reader of the translation
as complete a presentation of the original as possible. The mistakes
in orthography could only be reproduced in the translation where they
concerned proper names. The faults in syntax I have generally
reproduced. The reader will have to be the judge of how well I have
succeeded. The book is of more than ordinary interest from the fact
that it contains a description of an emigrant’s journey from Norway to
Chicago in 1837, the only description we have of that kind, and also
from the fact that it is written by the first immigrant from Norway
who set foot on Wisconsin soil.